CDC funds rural cancer center in Appalachian Ky. for research, prevention; could be national model

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a multi-million-dollar grant "to look for ways to prevent and control cancer in Appalachia, which has some of the highest rates in the nation," and the project could be a model for the nation, reports Laura Ungar of The Courier-Journal.

The grant is going to the University of Kentucky's Center for Excellence in Rural Health, based at Hazard, and will focus on 23 counties: Bell, Breathitt, Clay, Harlan, Floyd, Jackson, Johnson, Knott, Knox, Laurel, Leslie, Lee, Letcher, Magoffin, Martin, McCreary, Owsley, Perry, Pike, Pukaski, Rockcastle, Whitley and Wolfe. The exact amount hasn't been determined, but it will be but it will be about $800,000 to $1 million per year, said Dr. Baretta R. Casey, director of the center.

The grant will fund a Rural Cancer Prevention Center at the Hazard facility and workers who will visit cancer patients to conduct research and offer advice. “The community liaisons who will talk and meet with the participants of the research project are people from the community, so they trust them and understand them,” Casey told Ungar. “They know they’ve grown up just like they have and have the same problems. That is a voice that they believe, so it’s much easier to go into the community to be able to do this research. ... What we can find and discover could be replicated across the nation.”

Ungar reports that "A primary emphasis of the grant project will be to promote Gardasil, the vaccine against the sexually-transmitted virus that causes most cervical cancer." Richard Crosby of UK's College of Public Health told her, “The uptake of Gardasil in this area, even when given away, is extremely low. We find that less than 30 percent of young women offered the vaccine accept even the first dose for free. It’s even more difficult when you talk about the second or third dose. One major emphasis of the project will be 100 percent vaccine coverage for every eligible person in the area.” He said the overall project “is a model of rectifying health disparities in rural America.” (Read more)